Fast-tracking land titles a priority for new Amerindian Affairs Minister

Newly-appointed Amerindian Affairs Minister Pauline Sukhai has said her priorities include ensuring that the Land Titling Project, which had started under the previous People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Administration prior to 2015, is fast-tracked.

Sukhai, who took the oath of office as a member of President Irfaan Ali’s Cabinet on Thursday at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC), had previously served as Amerindian Affairs Minister under the Donald Ramotar Administration.
She posited that access to titled lands was a key concern for Amerindians and reminded that her Ministry had allocated funds to ensure that lands applied for by Guyana’s Indigenous peoples were demarcated and titled.
Commenting on the present situation, she said: “There has been a setback, a pause more or less, and I intend to resume a much more robust attention to completing that project.”
The Minister noted that other priority areas included ensuring that Indigenous youths were provided with employment opportunities so that they could develop themselves and their communities and affordable housing.
“We have had gross neglect over the last five years, which we will have to work to transition into a much more ease for the hinterland communities,” Sukhai told the media.
Sukhai expressed that the Ministry would resuscitate the entrepreneurship project which the PPP/C Government had started.
“I always believe in empowerment of the people. This is going to greatly help in any national drive to bring on par those who are in a lesser economic position; and therefore, we will have to look to see how we will continue to invest in the area of entrepreneurship,” she explained.
She outlined that there were many potential areas where the Ministry will have to continue to focus on, as the Government’s aim was to transform the lives of people everywhere.
Sukhai also disclosed that the President had already placed immediate focus on addressing the COVID-19 outbreak in the hinterland communities, and efforts would be heightened to ensure that the disease was contained.
President Ali on Wednesday swore in 19 members of his new Cabinet, and among the lot are several new, vibrant and youthful faces, whom he said bring multifaceted skillsets and experience to the table.
“It’s a multifaceted fusion of experience and skillsets that we brought together… So, you will see many of the appointments in the various areas of Government that will fuse different corners of our society together, different interests of our society together, as we work on giving the people of our country the best possible outcome…
“You’ve taken, like I did, an oath to people of this country, and we expect nothing else but fulfilment of that oath,” the President urged his team.